INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE
Time to talk, EU urges Madrid and Catalonia
Brussels — The EU executive has called again for the Spanish government and Catalan authorities to open dialogue to defuse the confrontation over calls for Catalonia’s independence. "It’s time to talk," European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans told the European Parliament as the EU legislature opened a debate on the situation in which 800 people have been injured. Reflecting the cautiously balanced tone of a commission statement on Monday after images of police violence against voters marked an unauthorised independence referendum on Sunday, Timmermans backed the legal position of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy but renewed a call for dialogue. "Respect for the rule of law is not optional, it is fundamental," said the Dutch deputy to EU CE Jean-Claude Juncker. "If the law does not give you what you want, you can oppose the law. You can work to change the law, but you cannot ignore the law. It is fundamental that the constitutions of every one of our member states are...
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